Nocona
The Nocona boy’s basketball team had an up and down go of it at its holiday tournament at Bridgeport on Tuesday and Wednesday.
The Indians went 2-2 overall in the two days of the tournament after a week from their last game and following the holiday break.
With only one more week of games before district play starts up, Nocona wanted to make sure it was up to speed following the extended time off and were thrown into playing four games into two days.
The Indians started against one of the area’s most notorious pressure defense teams Burkburnett.
After a furious first quarter went the Bulldogs way, the slower paced second quarter went Nocona’s way as the team led 27-25 at halftime.
Burkburnett picked back up the pace in the third quarter and outscored the Indians 23-7 to pull away in the game. A more even fourth meant Nocona could not come back as Burkburnett won 61-46.
Michael Wetmore led the team with 15 points on five made 3-pointers. Ryder Oswald was second with scoring nine points.
The second game of the day was another tough game against tournament host Brigeport. Nocona got out to a good start up 17-8 after the first quarter. A low scoring second quarter meant the Indians led 24-17 at halftime.
A more high scoring third quarter that was also pretty even meant Nocona still led 36-30 heading into the fourth quarter.
The Indians had chances to pull ahead farther as the Bulls made a last gasp attempt to steal the win. Nocona went 2-7 from the free throw line, just barely hanging on to win 42-40 in the end.
Brady McCasland led the team with 14 points. Luke Fuller was second with eight points.
On the second day the Indians first played Boyd. The Yellow Jackets led 30-25 at halftime, but Nocona picked up the scoring while limiting Boyd’s 3-point shooting that was hot in the second quarter.
Nocona grabbed the lead in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Yellow Jackets 20-11 to grab the win 63-57.
McCasland led the team with 22 points while Wetmore was second with 13 points and Luke Fuller scored 10.
The final game came against Hirschi. The Indians competed well with the Huskies in the first quarter, but then Hirschi outscored Nocona 19-6 in the second quarter to take 31-19 lead.
The Indians bounced back offensively in the third quarter scoring 20 points, but could not keep up that fire in the fourth quarter. Defensively Nocona could not get enough stops to come back from the deficit as the Huskies won 58-49.
McCasland led the team with 24 points while Fuller was second with 10 points.

Prairie Valley
The Prairie Valley Bulldogs had a tough non-district game against 2A Alvord on Wednesday their first game back from the holiday break.
The bigger Alvord team won 68-47 against Prairie Valley.
The Bulldogs last played on Dec. 20 and got their first district win against Bellevue before the break started. More than a week later, the team is hoping some non-district games can shake off the rust before district play starts up again next week.
Alvord jumped out to a 15-5 lead in the first quarter. It only go worse in the second quarter as Prairie Valley was outscored 20-8 and trailed 35-13 at halftime.
Prairie Valley played better in the second half, actually outscoring Alvord by one point with the two quarters combined. Unfortunately, that meant the team could not make much ground on the big lead Alvord got in the first half.
Trae Campbell led the team with 12 points while Eli Croxton and Tyson Easterling both scored nine points.

To read the full story, pick up a copy of the weekend edition of the Bowie News.